4 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



and devising new statistical methods of analyzing natural 

 resources. He came to us again. in January, 1919, since 

 which time he has revisited most of the counties of southern 

 Alabama to study them from the most recent points of view. 

 Some additional improvements in descriptive methods have 

 been developed at the same time. 



This report follows approximately the plan of my report 

 on the Agricultural Features of the State, published in 

 1883, but of course has three or four decades of subsequent 

 history to record, and goes more extensively into history 

 and statistics, the material for which have increased in num- 

 ber and variety with each succeeding census. It seeks to 

 represent not only present conditions, but also the progres- 

 sive changes of past decades, thus supplying not only much 

 additional detailed information but also the data for pre- 

 dicting future developments. 



In my 1883 report the State was described both by re- 

 gions and by counties, but in this report the county descrip- 

 tions are omitted to save space, it being often possible to 

 describe several contiguous counties in very similar terms. 



The statistical tables in the following pages contain 

 about 2,000 different percentages and other ratios, the great 

 majority of them never published before. These give in the 

 compactest possible form a multitude of fundamental facts 

 about the resources of the area treated and their utilization 

 during the last hundred years. Although statistical tables 

 make rather dry reading, to present the same facts in the 

 form of sentences would probably take ten times as much 

 space ; and besides, all the tables are accompanied by enough 

 explanatory text to make their significant features apparent 

 to any interested seeker for information. 



While a large part of this report is devoted to agricul- 

 ture, because that is the leading industry in southern Ala- 

 bama, it is by no means confined to that topic, but seeks to 

 answer as many as possible of the questions that a prospec- 

 tive settler might ask about this section. The subject is still 

 further illustrated a number of judiciously selected photo- 

 graphs, a few taken from earlier publications, but the ma- 

 jority new. 



Very respectfully, 



EUGENE A. SMITH, 



University of Alabama, State Geologist. 



May, 1920. 



